Hey guys, I just started this course (yesterday) and greatly look forward to knowing and loving the Hebrew language. I hope it will greatly impact my study of the Bible and my ability to teach and grow those in the church.
I am working on the alefBet (pun intended) right now. I've memorized and mastered writing the first five letters. Has anyone come up with a great way to make memorization easy? I'd love to hear from you. I am currently using flashcards (with a Hebrew keyboard) and writing in a notepad.
I'd love to connect with a couple people who are also in the beginning stages with me, that as we grow in Hebrew, can possibly practice with. My goal is not only to read and write it, but I want to be able to somewhat converse with it.
- Hi there Matthew. Great choice for going with Hebrew. It surely will make a great difference to your studying and teaching. Dr. Futato, in Unit 1 of HB101 gives an approach to memorising the letters. I have found it helpful to use the suggested cadence, and the division into groups of 5 except for the last 2 (3). What I have done to aid memory using this cadence technique is that the first 2 letters of each group will trigger your memory for the remaining 3. So, all you need to do is to remember the first 2 letters of each group in order to string them all together. So, Aleph Beth, will trigger (by cadence) the next 3 letters, Vav, Zayin, the next 3, Kaf, Lamed, the next 3, Ayin, Peh, the next 3, and that would be it. You can think of various ways to remember these pairs, e.g. Vav, Zayin are both standing; Kaf, Lamed are our usual K and L; Ayin, Peh are the "eye" and "mouth" (in Hebrew). I would be most happy to progress together with you, as I would also love to progress to the same level of proficiency as your aim is. Have a good day :-)
- John, thanks for your reply. I have spend the last two days repeating the first ten letters in that cadence. I actually woke up this morning reciting it. I feel pretty proficient today in writing and saying the first ten, so I'm now working the next five today, and hopefully, by tomorrow, will be proficient in all of them. I look forward to progressing with you to a level of conversational proficiency. Have a blessed day!
- Excellent Matthew. It does work, and it sticks well. All the best for today onwards. Anticipating with pleasure :-)